damned_institute | Night 74: Records Archive (Third Floor)

[From here.]

After having it built up so much, the Records Archive turned out to be a rather unassuming room.

It looked much like a number of the other rooms scattered throughout the institute. There were computer consoles all along the walls, interspersed with bookshelves that held countless different volumes -- journals, notebooks, and files, all looking to have been organized and cataloged in a very methodical way. There was a table in the center of the room surrounded by chairs; atop it were a few open journals, along with one large binder. Was this what Landel was referring to whenever he mentioned paperwork?

Castiel used his flashlight to take in the whole room, noting that there was yet another teleportation pad in the corner, but it was abandoned save for them. Maybe Landel hadn't expected them to get this far...

Other than the computers, though, this was the sort of thing that Castiel was comfortable with. This was research.

He turned back toward the others. "It looks like we have plenty of work to do."

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The look Kratos had directed his way, combined with the timing of Castiel's request, was enough to make Lloyd step back and give the men their space. Kratos wasted no time in bending over the keyboard again, entering the new search parameters with swift keystrokes. Earth and Apocalpyse... A tense moment passed as the computer processed the search.

The screen changed to reflect the results. Fewer, much fewer, but still far too many. Apparently the "apocalypse" was not a unique event. Keeping his voice down to keep their conversation separate and uninterrupted, Kratos shifted to the side, allowing Castiel access to the keyboard if he liked, and said, "Can you narrow it down with anything else?"

-

Leaving Kratos and Castiel to their search, Lloyd only glanced back curiously once before focusing on the conversation he was having. "I've never even heard of Santa," he admitted. "There's elves in my world, but I'm not sure they work for anyone at all. Mostly they just keep to themselves." The same couldn't be said of half-elves, but that was complicated and complex and not really important here, especially not if Link wasn't even from his world or part of the same race at all.

Taking a moment to digest what Link had just said, Lloyd rubbed his chin in thought. "Time?" he murmured, rolling that thought over. "Do you think some of these worlds are... are different times?" That would explain why they had the same name.

Before either Sora or Link could respond, though, the radio crackled to life again. With a quick apology to the others, Lloyd picked it up and listened before responding, then called over to Kratos, "Hey, Kratos, Guy's looking for a world called Auldrant."

Edited 2014-01-23 18:35 (UTC)

While the conversation that the others were having -- something about ancient times and races -- was enough to catch his interest, Castiel forced himself not to listen too closely, instead focusing on the screen in front of him. He would have thought that "Apocalypse" would be enough information to narrow it down to his world, but there were a handful of results on the screen. Were that many versions of Earth on the verge of collapse?

"Yes," he said in response to the question, pulling closer to the keyboard so that he could type for himself. Castiel wasn't at all used to typing like this. He'd done a small amount of texting on a phone before he'd come here, but this was very different.

So it took some time, but he did get the word "Winchester" typed into the search field. Naturally, that brought up only one result, for a world where monsters were real and Sam and Dean had a gospel written about their duties as the vessels of Michael and Lucifer.

"This is the one," he told Kratos, right as Lloyd spoke up with reports of another world. Castiel stepped back, giving room for Kratos to write down the coordinates and then carry out yet another search.

Elves who didn't work for anyone and kept to themselves. It wasn't anything like what Sora was familiar with, but each world was going to be different, so he didn't dwell on it too much. He could tell Lloyd all about Santa and Christmas at another time.

The idea that different worlds were actually more like different times was an interesting thought, but Sora had no idea if it was true. "Maybe? That might be true at least for some of them." But there was no way to know, not unless they sat down and read all of these entries, and they didn't have the time for that.

Besides, that would be a total drag...

At that point, though, someone else called in on the radio, which meant Lloyd and Kratos would need to get back to work. "Well, thanks for showing us, but we should probably keep moving. Unless you need help with anything?"

Link was just about to mention that they should keep moving when Sora chimed in. It wouldn't take all of them to search through this machine for world names. He began preparing to leave, adjusting his gloves as Sora asked if there was anything else they needed.

Once Castiel had narrowed his search to one world, Kratos picked up the pen and paper he'd set down before and wrote the coordinates out under the growing list that he'd copied so far. Once done, he handed the pen to Castiel. "Just in case," he suggested, trusting Castiel to understand what he meant. It went without saying that none of them had any guarantee that they would see each other the next day. It would be prudent, in his opinion, for them all to carry their own copy of their worlds' coordinates for themselves.

With that task done, he continued on to the next, retaking command of the keyboard to search for "Auldrant."

-

Once Kratos had the coordinates for Guy's world, Lloyd passed them on - fast enough that Guy hadn't yet gotten back to him about the name of the other world he wanted. Oh well, he'd probably call back soon enough. In the mean time...

He smiled, holding out his hand, first to Sora, then to Link. It was as much a farewell as a gesture of support and good luck. He had a feeling they all needed it. "I think we're good here. We'll probably stick around and keep copying coordinates for as long as we can. There's a lot of them there." That was an understatement. Still, he felt like they were making a decent dent. "Good luck, you two. Call us if you need any help."

Castiel nodded, not needing Kratos to explain why he was handing the pen to him. He pulled the piece of paper that he'd written Ryuuzaki and his friend's coordinates on and wrote down the numbers for his world as well. He studied them for a moment. Numbers could have great importance, but he didn't see anything that stood out in the combination here.

It looked like the two visitors were going to move on now, which was for the best -- this room was getting crowded. Once again, all Castiel did was offer a small nod in farewell as he placed the sheet of paper back in his pocket. He'd have to keep it well-guarded when day came, although it shouldn't mean much of anything to the nurses.

If Lloyd said that they didn't need any further help, then Sora would believe him. They didn't know each other that well yet, but Lloyd seemed like the honest type and besides, he had Mr. Kratos and their other friend with him.

"Thanks for doing all this," he said to all three of them with a wide smile. "I think it's going to make a big difference."

With that, he waved and turned to Link, moving to the teleportation pad in the corner of the room. After taking a deep breath, Sora nodded to himself and then stepped on.

[To here.]

Lloyd murmured a goodbye to the other two, watching as they stepped onto the warp pad. Kratos nodded an acknowledgment, his own silent form of farewell. Then they were gone, and it was time to focus on copying down more coordinates.

It wasn't long, though, before Guy called them back, giving them the other world's name that he needed.

"Look for an Earth," Lloyd relayed to his father. "Guy said the date there is SD 366." The date didn't mean anything to him, but hopefully it would be enough.

It was. As soon as Kratos had it, Lloyd called Guy back and gave him the coordinates for that Earth.

Night 74: Records Archive (Third Floor)

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